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investment in infrastructure (Nigeria2005). Nigeria is home to over 250 ethnic people groups, leading to religious and ethnic dissention within the country (Nigeria 2005).

While not having as high an incidence of strikes as the Malacca Straight, attacks in the region are significantly more violent (Clark2004). In the first half of 2004, Nigeria had thirteen attacks, compared with fifty in Indonesia (Anon 2004b). However, the International Maritime Bureau reported half of the thirty deaths recorded worldwide from maritime attacks during the same period took place in Nigerian territorial waters (Anon 2004b). Overall, while pirate and terrorist attacks were down to twenty-eight in 2004 (from thirty-nine in 2003), areas off the Nigerian coast remained by far the most deadly (Anon 2005b, Anon 2004b).

In a typical Nigerian attack, heavily-armed gangs, usually carrying automatic weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, hide in “the maze of creeks and rivers intertwined with mangrove swamps that make up the delta where the River Niger empties into the Atlantic Ocean” (Anon 2004b). The gang approaches a target ship using speedboats or barges, force it to halt and shoot at the windows of the bridge until the ship drops anchor. The pirates will then board the ship, take anything of value, and beat the crew. In addition, crewmembers are often kidnapped and held for ransom (Clark2004).

Some security analysts blame the proliferation of weapons since the cold war for increased violence in Nigeria (Anon 2004b). Others trace the problem to economic and political instabilities. “Decades of corruption and mismanagement by successive Nigerian regimes has left the oil-rich Niger Delta one of the most impoverished regions across the country” (Anon 2004b). This has had major negative economic impacts on the country, including massive unemployment, which further the appeal of financial gain through piracy (Anon 2004b). Nigeria has long been prominent in crude oil theft, siphoning off hijacked tankers to sell the oil to other vessels offshore (Anon 2004b). This is a main source of revenue for many groups in the country (Anon 2004b).

This problem is compounded with the frequency of terrorist strikes in the region. “Self-styled rebel leader, Ansari Doubt of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force” is one such terrorist (Anon 2004b). Doubt justifies his terrorist activities against the shipping community as a way to end what he views as the government’s “stranglehold on the 2.5 million barrels of oil produced each day in the region,” and has additionally admitted to stealing crude oil from multinational pipelines to fund his terrorist activities (Anon 2004b). Political insurgents such as Doubt increase the complexity of the Nigerian problem, moving it from economically based piracy to also include political and ideological agendas.

To its government’s credit, the Nigerian navy is active and serious about the piracy / terrorist problem in its waters. For example, last year a naval patrol pursued a group of seventeen pirates into the creeks near Warri, and subsequently killed them in an aggressive gun battle (Clark 2004). Nigerian security officials report that other patrols, primarily using the fo本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。